The objective of Crack B-School Over Chai was to provide a platform for MBA aspirants to interact with the leading authorities of the local management education community. There was a panel of eminent speakers which included B-School directors, career counsellors, test prep experts and well-placed alumni from leading global B-Schools.

Students took full advantage of this opportunity and bombarded the panel with their queries. The topics ranged from why an MBA, the different application procedures to how to pick a B-School and preparing for admissions. Students had the option of getting their doubts cleared on both Indian and international MBA options.

According to one MBA aspirant who is currently a dentist at Hindu Rao Hospital, “I was a little confused on how I would bring about a career change at this stage. However, the panel here was very helpful and made things clearer for me.”

Here's a brief profile of our panelists followed by their responses to important questions asked at the event:

	Dr. Pritam Singh , director, Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon is a management guru who has devoted his life to the development of management education in India and abroad. During his stint as the director of IIM Lucknow and now at MDI, he has been responsible for signing as many as 36 MoUs with international B-Schools. The country acknowledged his distinguished services when the President of India conferred on him the prestigious ‘Padma Shri' in 2003.

Mr. Prabir Sengupta is the director, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi where he is credited with strengthening of the faculty through induction of new members and faculty development programmes. He has been involved in the formulation and implementation of policies relating to international trade, imports and exports, energy planning, international cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector, industrial developments, management of public enterprises, project appraisal, project formulation etc.

Dr. Vijaya Khandavilli is the country coordinator for Educational Advising Services at the US Educational Foundation in India. She has a Ph. D in microbiology and post-doctoral research training from University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA. She has written several articles on U.S. education and two of her articles specific to business studies were included in the 2004 and 2005 editions of the Businessworld Mega B-School Guide .

	Jehangir Pocha is the Beijing based correspondent for Businessworld and the Boston Globe . He graduated from the S.P. Jain Institute of Management and Reseach, Mumbai and has had vast international exposure.

	Viraj Sawhney is an alumnus of St. Stephens College and IIM Ahmedabad. He has spent five years with McKinsey & Co and is currently working with Warburg Pincus in Mumbai. He took a 6-month sabbatical during his tenure at McKinsey in 2004 to work with the dean's office at ISB Hyderabad.

	Manish Khanduri graduated from the Kellogg School of Management in 2005 where he majored in finance and marketing. He is currently the manager, strategic planning, Turner Broadcasting in the US. Before doing an MBA, he was a business journalist for eight years.

	Tapan Bhattacharya completed his MBA from International Management Institute, New Delhi. He leads an MBA counselling team of ten people at The Princeton Review and is responsible for the company's product development, service delivery, operations etc.

	Kumar Abhishek is also an MBA from International Management Institute, New Delhi. His passion for teaching & education drew him to Career Launcher (CL). He is a key faculty member at CL and trains students in Personality Development Programs (PDP) & Verbal Ability.

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